Smiley / Pot Sounds

Preparing to help take care of Alyssa’s house while she is away I wanted to channel her inner critic the way that I often get my game face on — by listening to music. The laid back and sophisticated sounds of the Beach Boys are a good match for Alyssa’s style; what more, she is a big fan. Knowing what I needed to do, I started thumbing through my CDs before I realized that I don’t own any Beach Boys.

Next step, the hard drive. I have some MP3s of the Boys rehearsing in the studio, and I figure that will get me close. Wanting more, I found a forgotten oddity digitally shelved next those sessions. Its a Japanese record called ‘Smiley / Pot Sounds’ by a group named Toru & Kojima.

B.C. Sterrett found the album while visiting a friend in Japan and looking for rare records. At the time he was dead set on finding an LP with excerpts of the then un-released Beach Boy opus, Smile. Instead, he ended up with a CD that sounds like it was recorded in a closet by solo male vocalist and karaoke machine as back up. He was disappointed.

I’ll let B.C. take it from here: Sometime later I came back to the mystery of this cd. And quickly realized that I had found something even more rare, before I even knew about the labeling of Outsider Music. I would often play tracks for friends during one of those, “Look what I found” occasions. I’ve grown to love it, though it’s headache inducing at times.

I’m no Alyssa Rosesnberg, and nor was meant to be, but I’m looking forward to my time here and reading what the other esteemed guest bloggers have to say. And as long as my efforts don’t result in any Toru & Kojima stlye headaches, I will consider my efforts a success.

Anyway, for your listening pleasure / displeasure, here is a collage I made of some of the highlights of ‘Smiley / Pot Sounds.’ If you want to download the whole thing head over to the best radio station in the world, WFMU, and check out their unbeatable MP3 blog.

Songs by Brian Wilson or Toru Kojima or Paul McCartney-ish:

Surfer Girl | Meant for You | I Want to Eat Whale | I Wanna Pick You Up | Suffer USSR | God Only Knows